p. 21 | News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Aug 17, 1911

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

—Serious rioting has occurred the last week in Des Moines, Iowa, occasioned by striking carmen.

—In a typhoon which swept over Tokio and Yokohama, July 27, it is believed that more than one hundred persons lost their lives.

—July 28 fifty passengers were injured on an excursion train on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the accident being caused by a broken rail.

—The steamer “John Irwin” struck a rock off Beaver Harbor, Halifax, July 28, and sank to the bottom. Twelve passengers went down to death.

—At El Oro, Mexico, more than four thousand miners are on a strike in a demand for higher pay. In repelling a mob of these miners who sought to free some of the prisoners in jail, Mexican troops fired into a crowd, killing fourteen men.

—The deaths from the plague in India have reached the enormous total of 650,000 for the half-year ending June 30. The disease has taken such a hold on that country that its ravages are little heard of, except through the occasional official statistics.

—Admiral Togo, Japan’s great naval hero, has been visiting the United States during the last few days. He has been tendered a reception by President Taft at the White House, and given many assurances of the friendly attitude of the United States toward his government.

—The main building of the insane asylum at Hamilton, Ontario, was nearly destroyed by fire, August 1. There were 800 patients in the building when the fire was discovered, eight of whom perished in the flames. It is due to the splendid coolness and bravery of the nurses and attendants that a frightful loss of life was averted.

—The situation in Haiti is far from reassuring. The capital is occupied by two rival revolutionary parties. It has been necessary to organize a committee of public safety to insure anything like order and system. The various government representatives are bending every energy to avert further bloodshed, and to bring about, if possible, an understanding which will settle conditions.

—The Senate has concurred in the action of the House of Representatives of increasing the membership of the House by forty-two members. It is claimed that the added membership will involve an expense of approximately $400,000 a year. The average Congressional district will contain more than 17,000 greater population than at present, the average district comprising 211,877 under the new plan.

—Jerusalem is being rapidly modernized by German firms. One company has received a contract to conduct the pure water from the Judean mountains into the holy city, and another house is building an electric car-line from the Jaffa Gate to the heart of the city. Later this line will be extended to Bethlehem, six miles south of Jerusalem. A third German firm is to furnish the electric light for Jerusalem. A contract has also been awarded for installing the telephone system.

—In Kansas, where the government has set aside 60,000 acres as a tree reserve, the work of the tree planter is beginning to yield definite returns. The forestry station at Dodge City gives away trees at the rate of 500,000 a year; and since the establishment of the station, there has been a remarkable change in climate conditions. There are fewer blizzards, on the one hand, and there is much less suffering, on the other, from the hot winds that formerly did tremendous havoc to the crops. The saving in cattle and in crops alone, without regard to the other phases of the work, has more than justified the experiment.

—The fine gold-weighing scales made for the New Orleans mint are marvels of mechanical invention and accurate workmanship. The larger of the two has a capacity of 10,000 ounces troy, or about 680 pounds avoirdupois, and, when loaded to its full weight, will indicate a variation of one-thousandth part of an ounce, or the millionth part of its weighing capacity. Another pair of scales is the one intended for weighing gold only. It has bearings composed of the finest agates, which have been ground with wonderful precision. So delicate is this machine that it will give the precise weight of a human hair, and is susceptible to the slightest atmospheric changes. Millions of dollars’ worth of precious metals will be weighed annually upon these scales.

—Recently the largest sum ever offered for a single book was paid for a Bible. It was the Gutenberg Bible, the first book ever printed from movable type, and its date goes back to about 1450. The amount paid for it was $50,000, and it will find its way into the collection of Henry E. Huntington, of Los Angeles. The largest amount paid for a rare book before this was $24,750, and in this case, also, the book was part of the inspired Word, known as the Menz Psalter. There are thirty-four copies of this edition of the Gutenberg Bible still in existence, out of 180 that were struck off. What gives this Bible its value?—Not the contents; not the material of which it is made; not the associations connected with its history; but its age and its rarity. Every home in the United States, where the Word of God is a lamp unto the feet and a light unto the path, has a Bible of far greater value than the one which will be treated by Mr. Huntington as a $50,000 relic. After all, the value of the Bible lies in its use, and the supreme use for which it was designed is that it may lead men to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. A dollar Bible which is daily in the hands of a seeker after divine truth is worth more than the Gutenberg Bible costing $50,000, at which people will look through a glass case. We must not underestimate that Bible as a historic relic, nor must we lose sight of its still higher value which not all the gold in the world can equal.

—Snow squalls in Upper Michigan in the summer are not very unusual. They are not, however, to be expected in Ohio; yet several were reported from these States during July. Commenting on this, one of the papers says that snow has been seen to fall in New York City at the height of the roofs of the tallest buildings in every month of the year, and adds: “It is probable that at a considerable distance above the earth snow is a common phenomenon at all seasons, and all that is needed is some exceptional disturbance of the air currents to bring it down to within striking distance.” Any one who has been in the habit of climbing mountains more than half a mile high knows that to be a fact. Snowflakes have been seen in New Jersey this summer at a height of only 462 feet above the level of the sea.